Just What Is The Point Of This Walk?

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been trying to compile the ‘gigography of my life’, even to the extent of digging through my t-shirt drawer looking for concert dates to add to the list. Now L’s doing the same with her race t-shirts, as she compiles the ‘raceography’ of her life.

This is an interesting project too and as with gigs the internet has its uses. Partly. You’d have thought finding out your previous times for a race as big as the Nottingham Half Marathon would be doddle. Nope. There are no previous results on their website at all. Naturally I immediately email the organisers to find out why not.

Meanwhile I manage to piece together a race history from 2003 onwards using results that have been taken off the Nottingham Half website and reposted elsewhere. I even find an archived version of the 2006 website on some obscure server that contains a full set of results for 2004 and 2005. Unfortunately we need to go back further than that.

Sweatshop, the current organisers, quickly get back to me and promise to email the race director to see if he can help. I’m kind of impressed, even though they haven’t unearthed anything yet. I might even buy some shoes from them.

Time for this week’s long training run. 17km tonight, only a little longer than last week but it takes me to a convenient stopping point with a shop and a bus stop. It goes oddly well.

Then I walk the boys up to the tennis centre to meet L from the gym. Doggo is a pain. He simply doesn’t see the point of this walk at all. We don’t go down the footpath that leads to our usual entrance point onto the park, and then we then walk straight past the park’s side entrance. Although, as I do point out to him, it’s locked anyway, as the people trying to get out will testify to. They do lock it far too early in summer.

Then to compound his misery, we walk straight past the main entrance. This final snub is too much for him and he has a brief sit down protest. He glares at me as if to reiterate ‘just what is the point of this walk?’ Eventually we carry on, Doggo sulking and stopping to sniff at everything in an act of dissent. MD meanwhile is oblivious to it all, ploughing on regardless, a walks a walk.

Then Doggo sees his Mum. See there is a point to it after all.

(Tuesday 23rd August)

Why I Don’t Do Shuffle

I actually get the right bus this morning. It must have been late. Rather reluctantly I start another Logan McRae audiobook and instantly regret it... severed heads on the beach his time.



L’s on audio as well. Although she’s listening to a CD that I converted to mp3s and then copied to her ipod. I hadn’t realised the downside of this. She almost always has her music on ‘shuffle’, which is not something I ever do, and her ipod intersperses the odd chapter of a book into the music. That’s almost hilarious. Here’s Marilyn Manson followed by a random book chapter followed by song from Glee. She has varied tastes. Then again Marilyn Manson followed by Glee is shocking enough. Which is why I don’t shuffle.

I run home. We have the ‘Potters Arf’ this weekend. So I'm doing a bit of (late) training, allegedly. I decide to do nine miles of which the first seven are pretty gruesome. They are not pleasant at all but then oddly I enjoy the last two. I’m not sure if that’s a good sign or not. In fact I probably could have carried on but thought I better not spoil it.

I get the bus the rest of the way and then when I'm home, I cook those Singapore Noodles that I’ve been promising. They’re a complete disaster but oddly popular with the girls at home. I suppose they taste alright but they come out the pan in one amorphous pasta lump due to my refusal to use any cooking oil. I'm trying to be healthy you see. The recipe needs tweaking I think.

The work in progress on the ‘gigography of my life’ continues apace. I’ve managed to track down my written diaries covering the period July 1988 to the end of 1994, when I went computerised. I’ve always been a bit of a diary fiend I’m afraid. I’m sure I have some earlier diaries somewhere. I can feel another loft search coming on.

(Tuesday 7th June)

An Interesting Project

It rains today, most of the day, as is the way on a bank holiday. So our not very convincing plan to run in the Cross Country race at Oaks in Charnwood is shelved. It’s entry on the day only, so it’s not like we’ve paid for it or anything. Bet they got more than a few ‘no shows’.

Instead we stay in bed as long as possible, at least until the rain stops, well almost stops. Then the boys get a park session but no footballs. I’m thinking of Doggo’s legs.

Later I’m in the loft pulling out a shoe box of concert tickets and stolen setlists. I’ve recorded all the gigs I’ve attended from October 2006 onwards in this blog, separated them out for clarity at 'Fit For Moshing' and also recorded them on 'setlist.fm'. Now I’m trying to assemble a complete list of all the gigs I've ever been to. That means all the way back to the middle of the 1980’s. Gulp.

Luckily I've saved most of my gig tickets, well I've tried to save them all but often they take them off you and some never had tickets in the first place. I also used to pay on the door for a lot of gigs.

My computerised diary, good old (fashioned) Lotus Organiser, goes right back to 1994 and has most of the gigs I went to listed. Although it also has a lot of ones that I made a note of, but never went to... and can I remember which ones I skipped... hmmm.

An interesting project me thinks.

(Monday 30th May)